What Is A Technical Business Analyst?

You might have heard the term “technical business analyst” before. What is it? What do they do? How are they different from a normal business analyst? Read on to find out more about this role in the IT industry.

What Is A Business Analyst?

A technical business analyst is a type of business analyst.

A business analyst is someone on an IT project, whose main responsibility is communicating with the business users and the technical team. Their role is important because the business users know their area well but not necessarily the technical side of it. The technical team (developers, testers, etc) know how to develop systems but not necessarily how to gather the requirements from the users. The role of a business analyst is to speak to the business users, determine the requirements, document them, and translate them to something that the technical team can understand.

What’s The Difference Between A Technical Business Analyst and a Business Analyst?

Well, the question here is, “What is the difference between a business analyst and a technical business analyst?” This comes down to the capabilities of the person as well as the role.

The technical business analyst usually comes from a technical background, such as software development or network administration. They can understand the technical details of a system, similar to the technical team, but also have the communication and analysis skills of a business analyst.

There are business analysts that are non-technical – these are focused on the business side, and perhaps don’t understand the technical side as well as the technical BA. Their strengths are in the analysis and gathering of requirements, communication, and documenting the requirements of a project. They don’t necessarily come from a technical background.

Why Differentiate Between The Two?

Some may ask, why do we differentiate between the two? Why not just call it a business analyst?

Well, the main reason for this is the requirements of the position. Some projects and some roles in companies require a BA to be more technical and to have an understanding of the technical side. This may be the case on smaller projects where there is a smaller team to handle the development or implementation work.

It’s used to specify that you need to have a technical background or technical skills to perform this role.

I hope this has cleared up any confusion about the technical business analyst role and what they do. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments section below!